Question

During decomposition, high-energy organic molecules from the bodies of plants and animals are converted to molecules such as carbon dioxide and water, which are __________.

Answer 1

What rots will wind up becoming part of something else.

This is how nature recycles. Just as death marks the end of an old life, the decay and decomposition that soon follow provide material for new life.

“Decomposition breaks apart dead bodies,” explains Anne Pringle. She’s a biologist at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass.

When any organism dies, fungi and bacteria get to work breaking it down. Put another way, they decompose things. (It’s the mirror image of composing, where something is created.) Some decomposers live in leaves or hang out in the guts of dead animals. These fungi and bacteria act like built-in ...

Answer 2

inorganic complex molecules.